Arrow

Arrow‘s mid-season finale moves beyond the Vigilante and Invasion! story arcs to center its attention back on the season’s looming big bad, Prometheus. Offering flashbacks to Oliver‘s (Stephen Amell) early days as Starling City’s vigilante (his costume has certainly gotten better), “What We Leave Behind” begins to fill in gaps about who Prometheus is and why he has a vendetta against Green Arrow (although I would have been more impressed if they actually tied it to First Season episode rather than filming new scenes). From their encounters it’s obvious the Church didn’t tell the villain anything he didn’t know, as Prometheus would have had to know Oliver’s identity years ago to retrace the man’s steps and train with at least one of the same masters (which doesn’t quite jibe with the villain’s actions since arriving in Star City as he only begin to focus on Oliver after Church’s deathbed confession).

I guess it’s not surprising that the the show with the biggest cast would be the one to deal best with the Invasion! crossover, even if that does mean that The CW’s weakest super-hero link provides the best episode of the quartet. The final episode reveals the motives for the Dominators‘ arrival and just what they have planned for the Earth’s meta-human population. The fact that Barry‘s (Grant Gustin) time-divergence is responsible for the Dominators, who after the reveal seem more like timecops than killer monsters, was a bit of a surprise. The demand that Barry turn himself over to the aliens or they would kill all the meta-humans on the planet is awkward (given their fear of meta-humans is there any reason to believe they would be satisfied with only Barry?). In much the same way the logic to beating the aliens is questionable (could they really be certain to get every Dominator?), but it does give Barry and Kara (Melissa Benoist) the chance for more tag-team goodness.

The Invasion! crossover continues, focusing mainly on current and former Arrow cast members who are abducted by the Dominators and thrown into a virtual-reality world in which Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Thea‘s (Willa Holland) parents are still alive, Diggle (David Ramsey) is the Green Arrow, and Oliver is set to marry Laurel (Katie Cassidy). Haunted by memory flashes of their true lives, Oliver, Thea, Diggle, Ray (Brandon Routh), and Sara (Caity Lotz) come together to fight their way out of the fake reality and back into the real world where they wake up to discover they are aboard a Dominator mother ship in outer space.

Now this is more like it. The big four-part crossover which was teased (but not actually begun) last night on Supergirl gets started here with the arrival of the Dominators on Earth. For those not familiar with the aliens, the Dominators were first introduced back in the 60s but made their most notable splash in DC Comics in 1989 as part of the Invasion! (good name) mini-series. Realizing he can’t stop the alien threat alone, Barry (Grant Gustin) enlists the help of Team Arrow (including the retired Thea), the Legends, and even hops universes to bring back Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). Although Barry doesn’t take naturally to leading, the team follows him… at least until they discover about Flashpoint whose effects continue to be discovered as one Legend learns he now has a loving daughter he has never met.

The trail of bodies left across the city leads to new tensions among Oliver (Stephen Amell) and his team, first because failed to tell them of the new threat in Prometheus, and second because the reasons for these killings tie back to Oliver’s early days as the Arrow and his list of dead bodies. Prometheus himself continues to be a mostly forgettable villain, another dark archer with a slightly different mask whose motivations the show’s writers continue to keep to themselves (and, no, I’m not taking that late reveal seriously). Things aren’t any easier on the mayoral front as the chaos Prometheus’ seemingly random killings has created threatens the peace and Thea (Willa Holland) discovers Quentin‘s (Paul Blackthorne) sobriety is a work of fiction.